
Known as a successful classical conductor, jazz pianist, and
composer of jazz, classical, and film music, André Previn has
frequently bridged the gap between popular and so-called "serious"
music, and in doing so broadened the horizons of both. A
German-American who fled Nazi Germany with his family in his youth,
he went on to win four Academy Awards, all for his work on film
musicals in late '50s and '60s, including his adaptation of My Fair
Lady (1964). By the '70s, he had established himself as one of the
world's leading classical conductors, with terms at the London
Symphony Orchestra (1968-1979), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
(1976-1984), and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1992). He also
served as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1985
to 1989. During his tenure at the LSO, the BBC series André
Previn's Music Hour made him household name. All the while, his
career-spanning jazz recordings included collaborations with
artists such as Benny Carter, Herb Ellis, and Shelly Manne, as well
as classical artists including Itzhak Perlman, Leontyne Price, and
Kiri Te Kanawa. Winner of ten Grammy Awards, Previn was the
recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. A
native of Berlin, Previn's father was an accomplished pianist
(though a lawyer by profession) and determined that his son would
follow in his musical footsteps. The talented young André received
instruction on the piano at the Berlin Hochschule, and also
absorbed music in a less formal environment during the many private
recitals given in the Previn home. In 1938, the Jewish family fled
to France where André continued as a scholarship student at the
Paris Conservatoire. In 1939, the Previn family relocated to
southern California. Life was difficult for the family (all their
possessions had been left behind in Europe, and Previn's father was
qualified only in German law), and though barely ten years old,
André supplemented the family income by accompanying films at movie
houses and playing in jazz clubs. At 14 he started working at MGM
(Charles Previn, André's great uncle, was head of music at
Universal Studios), orchestrating and arranging film music, and
slowly saved enough money to study composition with
Castelnuovo-Tedesco. At 18, André was asked to compose his own
full-length film score, 1949's The Sun Comes Up, which resulted in
his first experience on the podium in front of a real orchestra.
Previn, who had taken U.S. citizenship in 1943, served in San
Francisco during the Korean War, where he had the opportunity to
study conducting with Pierre Monteux. Following discharge from the
army, Previn left MGM, but continued to compose, conduct, and
arrange film music throughout the '50s, winning Academy Awards for
his score adaptations of Gigi (1958) and Porgy & Bess (1959).
He also recorded and released a series of best-selling jazz albums,
something he would continue to do sporadically throughout the
decades. In the early '60s, Previn's film scores included such
enduring works as Elmer Gantry (1960) and The Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse (1962). Shortly before winning his third and fourth
Academy Awards for Irma la Douce (1963) and My Fair Lady (1964),
Previn found the courage to abandon Hollywood and pursue his dream
of becoming a respected conductor. His professional debut occurred
in 1963 with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and he spent the
next several years traveling around the country conducting various
little-known orchestras in an effort to gain exposure and develop
his own skill on the podium. His first big break occurred in 1967
when he was asked to succeed Sir John Barbirolli as music director
of the Houston Symphony. When offered the job of principal
conductor for the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, Previn left
Houston. During his 11 years with the orchestra (1968-1979), a
series of BBC television productions entitled André Previn's Music
Hour made the LSO (and Previn) a household name around the world.
Other conducting appointments included the Pittsburgh Symphony
(1976-1984), the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1989),
and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1992). Previn readily
admits that he is not driven to compose, doing so mostly by
request, but he nevertheless composed a generous quantity of
concert music, including a piano concerto for Vladimir Ashkenazy
and a cello sonata at the request of Yo-Yo Ma. The year 1998 saw
the release of his full-length opera A Streetcar Named Desire at
the San Francisco Opera. In 2009, Houston Grand Opera presented his
Brief Encounter, based on the 1945 film of the same name and its
source material, the Noël Coward play Still Life. That year,
Previn's diverse career was celebrated with a series of four
concerts at Carnegie Hall in honor of his 80th birthday. A year
later, he was presented with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
~ Blair Johnston & Marcy Donelson